Boys Rankings - December 19

THE TOP 20 BOYS BOWLING TEAMS IN NEW JERSEY

1.       Woodbridge (nj.com preseason #2)

GA: 213.2   Won the Bob James & Wheeler tournaments. Bilawsky, Stoveken & Drost are a tremendous top 3, and they go 6 deep, as evidenced by Friday’s six-600 performance. GA is slightly below Brick Memorial, but Woodbridge dominated the one time both teams were at the same event.

2.       Brick Memorial (nj.com preseason #1)

GA: 214.0  3^rd at Bob James, top qualifying score at RWTI. Five starters averaging over 200, led by Andrew Lazarchick’s huge 233.  16-2 in the toughest division in NJ.

3.       East Brunswick (nj.com preseason #8)

GA: 207.5   Second behind Woodbridge at the James.  Sam Bortnick is averaging 236 in GMC matches. Daniel Lenk’s at 220. They’ve shot as high as 3299.  They can roll with anybody.

4.       Shawnee (nj.com unranked)

GA: 208.9   Won the Olympic tournament, which included 2 other top 20 teams. Andrew Abbonizio started the season with an 800 and is still crushing. Chris Pagliuso is averaging over 225.  This team can put up some numbers, hitting a high of 3233.

5.       Manasquan (nj.com unranked)

GA: 204.8  Big leap forward for Austin Devereux, Kyle Bauter & company last week firing 3169, 3134 & 3217 (which qualified 2^nd at RWTI).

6.       Toms River South (nj.com unranked)

GA: 201.2   Qualified 3^rd at their tournament Saturday with 3167, off a 3177 on Thursday.  Chris Swindell leads the way with a 214 average in conference play.

7.       Brick Township (nj.com preseason #6)

GA: 198.8   Joran Maliza’s been phenomenal, averaging 228 after his 300/756 last week.  And they’re winning: 12-3 in Shore-South-A.  Slightly subpar tournament results keep them from ranking higher; my guess in that they’ll get there sooner or later.

8.       South Brunswick (nj.com unranked)

GA: 198.6   Another GMC squad.  It’s tough to shoot 3151 and lose, as SB did to East on Friday. They have at least four bowlers (Chan, Delacruz, Fama & Kohutanycz) capable of going big.  If they all fire at once, this is a scary group.

9.       Ocean Township (nj.com unranked)

GA: 199.9    Chasing Manasquan as best team in Shore-Central-A. Mathew Redbord leads the way with a 215 mark and the team’s pretty consistently around 3000.  Look forward to seeing how they do in a tournament setting.

10.   Livingston (nj.com unranked)

GA: 197.1   Not a lot of results here, but I was impressed with 3^rd at the Wheeler (where scores were generally down) and a 3126 last week in a win over Seton Hall Prep.  Not 100% sure I’m right, but there’s a bunch of teams pretty tightly packed so certainty is not an option.

11.   Cherry Hill East    GA: 198.5

12.   Pascack Valley      GA: 197.8

13.   Seneca      GA: 196.8

14.   Lacey     GA: 194.8

15.   Egg Harbor     GA: 196.2

16.   Indian Hills     GA: 197.2   (nj.com preseason #9)

17.   Monroe     GA: 196.2

18.   St. Joseph (Metuchen)     GA: 194.1

19.   Old Bridge     GA: 193.1

20.   Sussex Tech     GA: 193.5    (nj.com preseason #4)

Indian Hills put up a ridiculous 4-man 2631, yes, but the followup, while very good, was under 200 average even at four bowlers.  I think they can move up, but can’t do it quite yet.  Pascack Valley’s in a similar boat, but they proved their 5-bowler chops by winning the Irwin tournament.  I’m probably underrating Sussex Tech.  They put up a subpar number on Friday while missing star Joey Steele. 

TEAMS THAT JUST MISSED:

Central
Cherry Hill West
Pompton Lakes
Sayreville (nj.com preseason #3)
Wayne Hills

TEAMS TO KEEP AN EYE ON:
Jackson Memorial
Montville
North Bergen
St. Rose
Warren Hills

JM qualified 4^th at RWTI and looked good doing it.  Montville’s had 2 3000 sets and is 35-0, but the game average is just a bit low to rank them just yet. North Bergen only has 1 result reported; same with St. Rose. Warren Hills followed up 2 ok scores with a huge 3140; more of that and they’ll be ranked soon.